Roubaix: Richie Portes pain upon crashing out of the Tour de France for a second year running on Sunday was only matched by the anguish of later learning he had fractured his right clavicle and could now be out for six to eight weeks.
While it was first thought the 33-year-old Tasmanian had not sustained any fractures in the crash 10km into Sundays 156.5km ninth stage from Arras Citadelle to Roubaix, the bad news was confirmed several hours after the stage finish.
Fractured dream: Richie Porte has suffered another heartbreaking exit from the Tour de France.
Photo: AP
“Obviously Im devastated,” Porte said in a BMC Racing team statement. “For the second year in a row I am ending the Tour de France like this. I was on the ground before I knew it and straight away felt pain in my right shoulder.
“I wanted to say a big thank you to my teammates for their incredible work over the first nine days. We had a great first week. Im so disappointed that I wont be continuing to Paris. “I hope to recover as fast as possible and get back to racing.”
BMC Racing Team chief medical officer Dr Max Testa said Porte has a “non-displaced right clavicule fracture.” He said the fracture was “straightforward” and that Porte will rest for a week before considering riding on the home trainer, but should be able to train in “probably three to four weeks”.
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Testa said Porte could be racing again in “six to eight weeks”.
The diagnosis will likely rule out the prospect of Porte racing in the third and last of cyclings three grand tours, the Vuelta a España that starts in August, as BMC Racing Team manager Jim Ochowicz had initially mooted when it was thought that Porte had at least escaped any bone fracture from the crash.
Broken man: Australia's Richie Porte, right, receives medical attention as he sits on the road.
Photo: Christophe Ena
Ochowicz had no doubt that Porte was up to challenge for the podium, if not the Tour victory based on his recent form.
“If you just look at what he did in this last week,” said Ochowicz. “He was in the front group in the team time trial [won by BMC]. With the two uphill stages, he was right up there, actually ahead of most of the general classification guys so. It gives you an indication he is in good form.”
After Portes pile up of about a dozen riders, 35km before the first of 15 sectors of bone jarring cobbles that saw numerous riders crash, it was clear that he was the worst injured.
Sitting on the ground holding his right shoulder, he winced in pain. After he was helped to the nearby footpath to sit in the shade while a race doctor checked him out, the tears then rolled as he realised that his Tour would now end with an ambulance taking him to hospital in Cambrai for x-rays.
Porte now faces another recovery and rehabilitation, as he did after crashing out of the Tour on stage nine last year on the twisting descent of the Mont du Chat in the Alps with a broken collar bone, fractures pelvis and multiple abrasions.
On Sunday, Portes team was crestfallen over his misfortune.
“For sure,” said BMC Racing Team sports director Allan Peiper. “We have worked on this for a whole year.
“There is a whole years work from a big organisation.
“This is the pinnacle event we have worked with that leader Richie Porte, and it is taken away from you in a flash.
“There is a lot of work that a lot of people have put in … and its gone away in a flash.
“He just seemed to be in a very good place mentally … [he was] full of confidence and very confident after the last nine days of racing on the flat, into cross winds and the rest of it.”
Swiss teammate Stefan Küng lamented how what could have been was once more cruelled by misfortune. “It was stage nine last year, stage nine this year,” he said. “Its not meant to be, to get Richie on the podium in Paris in the BMC colours. There was nothing we could have done. We kept him out of trouble the whole first week. Its a big bummer.
“We were ready. We had a good build up to this … He was ready. His main goal was to get through today, then hit it in the mountains. I feel so sorry for him. I wish him all the best.”
For Portes BMC teammates, the challenge now is to refocus new goals in the Tour that finishes in Paris on Sunday week. Some solace is that Belgian teammate Greg Van Avermaet held on to the overall race leaders yellow jersey on Sunday.
Van Avermaet, the Olympic road champion, finished second in the stage and in the winning three rider breakaway.
The stage was won by German John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) from Van Avermaet with Belgian champion Yves Lampart (Quick-Step Floors) finishing third. At 27s came a group of 26 riders, including all but three Tour contenders – those being, Spaniard Mikel Landa (Movistar) and Frenchman Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) at 34s, and Colombian Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) at 1m 55s.
Going into Mondays rest day in Annecy at the foot of the Alps, Van Avermaet leads the Tour by 43s over Welshman Geraint Thomas (Sky) in second, and 44s over Belgian Phillip Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) in third.
Australias Mitchelton-Scott teams British hope Adam Yates is well placed in ninth overall at 1m 42s and at the same time as British Tour champion Chris Froome (Sky) who is eighth.
Coming Up:
Monday: Rest and transfer day. No racing, as the Tour transfers from the north of France to the foot of the Alps. For riders, it will be a rest day, after flying south on Sunday night. For everyone else, it is a day spent driving eight to nine hours to Annecy where the Tour will resume on Tuesday.
Tuesday: Stage 10 – Annecy to Le Grand Bornand, 158.5km
The first of three Alpine stages. There are five major mountain passes in this stage, and with the overall classification still tightly knit after a dramatic day on the cobblestones of northern France on Sunday, and aggressive race is expected – especially after a rest day on Monday.
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